I have decided to resurrect my blog and am committed to putting my current thoughts in wirting every week or so. I tried "tweeting" but it turns out my thoughts run longer than the allowed words. So, here we go. 

TURNING 70!

Thanks to all those wished me Happy Birthday on my 70^th! It was a very good day spent down here in sunny southwest Florida. The only thing missing was a birthday cake, which was well substituted  by a piece of Florida key lime pie!

The turning 70 thing got me thinking about what it really means, if anything. When I was in my teens the concept of turning 70 was not on the radar. Long term then meant “what am I going to do this weekend”.  That plus cars and sports were about the only things on my mind. Not even the project due the next morning was in the picture. As an aside, it is funny how history repeats itself; vivid in the memory banks is the time our high school age son came downstairs one Sunday evening about 9.00 and asked “if we had any poster board”. His project was due Monday morning.

In the 20’s and 30’s, the only person I knew that was 70 was my Dad. He was 50 when I was born. He worked long hours every day so my guess then was that everyone did that. The only thought I had of me getting to that age was that I didn’t want to be working as hard as he did.

Finally, when I got to the 40’s and 50’s, I began to think that we really should be thinking about life in the 60’s and 70’s and beyond. So, some financial planning was in order. 

The thing that is different now about turning 70 compared to turning 70 many years ago is this: now we are much more mobile and can travel; we can play sports such as golf and tennis that old people “back then” didn’t or couldn’t do; we can operate a computer ( our phone ) that has much more power and capability than the old card fed mainframe computers; we have medical procedures that can sustain life and improve mobility, etc, etc, . We have Facebook and social media (not sure if this is good or bad).  I also think maybe our minds are more active. I know that the more we use them later in life, the “sharper” we are.

The point of all this is that turning 70 is both a big deal and not a big deal. I have had many friends that are now gone, God bless their soul, thus it is a big deal. Many of us are still ticking and doing well however and thus it is not a big deal. Being old is a state of mind and I truly do not feel “old” but I know that 70 is pretty old in that many do not make it this far or if they do, are having problems.

Being old and thinking you are old are two different things. As for me, even though I am “old”, I am going to keep on thinking that I am not “old”.

Anyone for turning 80?